Zander Hughes, 3, formerly of Fond du Lac, died in a pool accident in Florida on July 2. The family is planning to return to Fond du Lac for the burial. / Submitted photo

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The Reporter Media

How to donate

• Donations can be sent to: Zander Hughes Family Memorial Fund, c/o Fox Valley Savings Bank, 51 E. First St., Fond du Lac, WI 54935. • A Poker Run will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, July 20. Signup is available on the day of the run at the Shacks Sports Bar, W4768 Highway 23, or Top Hats Clubhouse, W797 River Road, Oakfield. All vehicles are welcome. • A benefit will be held at on Saturday, Sept. 21, at the Shack Sports Bar. The event will include live music, food, a silent auction and a 50-50 raffle. • Any individuals or businesses who would like to donate raffle items or volunteer to help can contact Tammy Albel-Bevan at 923-4355.

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Zander Hughes was a spirited boy with light-brown curls and a love for Mickey Mouse.

The 3-year-old will be returned home this week to Fond du Lac, the place where he was born, to be buried beside his grandmother at Calvary Cemetery.

On July 2 Zander drowned in a swimming pool outside the home his family was renting in Kissimmee, Fla.

Fond du Lac area family and friends have sent up a fund for the Hughes family to help pay for travel expenses. Zander is the son of long-time Fond du Lac residents Paul and Michelle Hughes.

The visitation for Zander will be held from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. with funeral services to follow on Wednesday at Zacherl Funeral Home.

“Their hearts are broken,” said Michelle’s close cousin, Tammy Abel-Bevan of Fond du Lac. “They are too overwhelmed right now to speak about it.”

Through the years the Hughes family has had it’s share of heartbreak. The family moved to Florida in 2011 after Michelle’s mother, Donna Snyder, lost her battle with cancer.

“Michelle took care of her mother until the end, along with raising her children,” Abel-Bevan said. “And it was a life-long dream of theirs to live in Florida, to escape the long winters and be near Disney World.”

The family gathered all of its savings to make the move. Paul was employed at Badgerland Supply Co., and he quit his job to relocate his family in the south. Zander was especially happy because he loved all things Disney, and Kissimmee was only about a half hour away from Disney World.

On the day Zander died, the last the family saw of him he was playing with toys in his room. He had been bugging his mother all day about wanting to go outside but it had been raining off and on, Abel-Bevan said.

Michelle’s older daughter Haley Pulcine, who lives with the family along with her 1-year-old son Kaeden, checked on Zander earlier in the evening while Michelle prepared dinner.

“It was no more than 10 minutes later they checked on him again and he was gone,” Abel-Bevan said.

Because the in-ground pool was forbidden to Zander, a kiddie pool was set up outside the gates surrounding the larger swimming pool. Somehow Zander had managed to unlatch the dead bolt and wander inside the gates. It was his mother who found him floating in the pool.

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“Police and then paramedics worked on him a long time. At the hospital he was put on a respirator but he had no brain activity,” Abel-Bevan said.

Early in the morning of the second day, around 3 a.m., they took the child off life support.

“He was really full of life, always smiling and laughing. He melted hearts,” Able-Bevan said.

Zander was legally blind in one eye but that didn’t stop him from getting the most out of life.

The loss of a beloved son heaps more heartbreak on a family that already suffered enough, Abel-Bevan said. Haley, 20, is a survivor of childhood leukemia. About five years ago the family lost a grandson shortly after he was born. And the day after Michelle’s mother died, her grandmother was diagnosed with cancer.

“They just wanted to get over all the sadness and start a new life,” she said.

A local fund has been set up at Fox Valley Savings to help the family pay for travel expenses. Abel-Bevan said costs have risen above $6,000 to bring everyone home to Fond du Lac.

More fundraisers have been scheduled, including a Poker Run on Saturday, July 20, and a benefit at the Shack Sports Bar on Saturday, Sept. 21. Information has been set up on a Facebook page: Zander Hughes Family Memorial Fund.

“It’s important to Michelle that Zander to buried next to his grandmother. She wanted him near her loving arms,” Abel-Bevan said.

The Hughes family includes Michelle’s oldest daughter, Jaimie Schwartz, who lives in Fond du Lac; a daughter Ciarra, 14; and son, Jayden, 10.